MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

2/16 Q eager to see Pena, not Pujols

Albert Pujols’ decision to end contract talks with the Cardinals may have some Cubs fans speculating that he could be moving north in 2012 but not Mike Quade.

“That’s their deal,” Quade said Wednesday. “I’m looking forward to working with our guys on
Saturday. You hear, ‘Is that going to affect this or that?’ — they’re going to
be a good team. He ain’t going anywhere now, that’s for [darn] sure. He’s somebody
we have to get out and somebody we have to beat and I don’t care what happens
contract-wise right now with him. That’s between them and him.”

What about next year?

“Let’s hope
we’re all here next year and can answer the same questions,” Quade said.

One reporter speculated that the Cubs could be in the mix for the first baseman.

“Is he going to be here tomorrow?” Quade said. “I’m looking forward to
seeing Carlos Pena knock the daylights out of the ball and that’s all that
matters to me right now.”

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